Online shopping gender gap

March 15, 2008|By The Wall Street Journal

This group is a retailer's dream: When shopping online, they spend more, make snap decisions -- and return less stuff.

Who are these desirable shoppers? Men.

While men and women shop differently in brick-and-mortar stores, the Internet has long been seen as offering similar speed and efficiency to both genders. But recent research by analysts and retailers has turned up significant gender differences when it comes to online shopping.

The most striking is men's need for speed. "Men tend to value their time more," says Sucharita Mulpuru, a Forrester Research analyst.

But men also spend more money online -- and they spend big on luxury. Such findings, coupled with the relative strength of men's apparel in general -- sales rose 4.4 percent to $57.2 billion last year, compared with a 1.1 percent increase to $103.1 billion for women's apparel, according to market researcher NPD Group -- are prompting more online fashion retailers to take aim at men.

Some retailers are launching shopping sites just for men, while others, including Neiman Marcus Group and Saks are beefing up their men's sections and tweaking their sites to make it easier -- and faster -- for men to shop. Neimanmarcus.com, for example, now gives shoppers a way to view 52 ties at once in its new Tie Shop, instead of having to look at them nine at a time.

Men also return fewer items. Forrester's Mulpuru estimates that men send back fewer than 10 percent of their apparel purchases, while women return more than 20 percent of the apparel they purchase.

BY THE NUMBERS

* $2,401: Average amount men spent on online fashion, including clothing and accessories, in the previous three months.

* $1,527: Average amount women spent on online fashion in the previous three months.